SCIENCE SIFTINGS

New Zealand Tablet, 8 April 1920, Page 46

SCIENCE SIFTINGS

(By “Volt,”)

KywJ Snap-Slots. ,"‘'- : v" A snap-slot is a photograph taken by a slot machine, and before long these machines may be' common features on piers, parades, and station platforms. The machine takes your picture, develops it, prints it, and delivers it, all in the space of four minutes. This is how it does it. You sit before the machine and drop in your coin. A bell rings, and the machine displays this notice: “Now, then! Turn your head, please, to the-right; look at the little cross above the mirrorand smile.” Then a lamp lights up in the machine, A second warning bell rings, and a new notice appears. “Keep still, please,” it says, and you obey. The click of the shutter' and the extinguishing of the light inform you that the exposure has been made, but test there should be any mistake, a third notice appears with the following message: “Thank you, the sitting is over, and you can rise from your seat. In four minutes your portrait will be delivered at the bottom of the apparatus.” The picture arrives punctually to the second, and if it is not like you, that is your fault! The invention is a French one. The “Deadly” Upas Tree. The upas tree is a large tree growing in Java. The juice of the upas tree constitutes a virulent poison, called by the natives “antjar,” which owes its deleterious character to the presence of strychnine. The smallest wound by an arrow tipped with this poison is fatal. Toward the close of the 18th century, a Dutch surgeon, Foersch, circulated in Europe various myths with regard to the upas tree. It was said to be so deadly that the poison was collected by criminals condemned" to death, who obtained their pardon if they brought away the poison, which was, however, found fatal to 18 out of every 20 who made the attempt. It was destructive to all vegetable life but its own and grew in the midst of a desert which it had made. It is now known that the upas tree was credited with the destruction of animal life really attributable to the escape of carbon dioxide from a vent or vents in a valley surrounded by volcanos. It has been seen growing with other trees in forests, and in 1844 was introduced into hothouses with no deleterious effect. * The Teeth of Africans. The common idea is that the ’diet and climatic conditions of the negroes are the cause of their having beautiful teeth, but some authorities dispute this. Thus, in some parts of Africa, when an infant has gone through the “teething period,” his mouth is rinsed out with an infusion of the leaves of a native tree possessing a constituent which causes the gums to shrink, so tightening the teeth. The natives living near the source of the Nile employ the roots of a pod-bearing plant to relieve toothache, while another tribe farther west use an infusion of kasso seeds for the same purpose. The toothbrush as used in this country is, of course, unknown to the savages, but many of them have a most effective substitute. They ■use a piece of wood from certain trees which contain beneficial qualities. Further, this stick is free from the great objection to brushes. It can be renewed at very frequent intervals, and is thus always fresh and wholesome—a great advantage over the toothbrush of civilised races. Notes. “Rice paper,” upon which the Chinese make charming drawings, is a thin sheet of the prepared pith of a tree. Abyssinia is the original home of the coffee tree, and on the highlands of that country there are immense forests of it that have never been touched. The wild horses of Arabia will not admit a tame horse among them, while the wild horses of South America endeavor to decoy domesticated horses from their masters, and seem eager to welcome them. - Dew is a great respecter of colors. To prove this, take pieces .of glass or board and paint them red, yellow, green, and black. Expose them at night, and you will find that the yellow will be covered-with moisture, the green will be damp, but that the red and the black will be le/ft perfectly drg. ■ ■ • ■ - : '